The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Ayemenem, India

Wow. What a book. It is hilarious yet infuriating; innocent yet powerful, but most of all: haunting. My absolute favorite part of this book is the narration. The narrator speaks from the point of view of the children in such a way that it reminds you of how you thought when you were a child. For example, referring to the main characters as “Ambassador S. Pelvis” or a villain as “The Orangedrink Lemondrink Man.” I’ve never read anything like that before in a novel with such a serious tone. This book has taken me a while to sit down and actually review, but I think the fact that I’ve had to think so long and hard about this book proves to me how amazing it actually is.

The story follows the Ipes, a rich, anglophilic Indian family. Rahel and Esthappen are fraternal twins, but are more like one mind in two bodies. The story bounces mainly between 1969, when a traumatic incident alters the family forever, and 1993 when the twins, separated in 1969 are reunited.

There is very little action in this novel, and the bouncing back and forth in time can be quite confusing. I had to read Sparknotes throughout to keep my place, but for a story like this, it was worth it. This is my favorite kind of novel. I like lengthy prose and deep characters. The characters are obviously flawed, but you still gain a love and respect for them (that is, until the end, when everything goes dark). And then I felt so betrayed by the characters because I thought they would be better than they were.

You’re told the ending of the novel in the beginning. Everything happens exactly the way you’re expecting but somehow it’s unexpected at the same time. This book is the reason why I love books so much. Books don’t conform to the expectations of our society like movies and TV shows do. You can hate a book and hate the characters, and that was exactly the point. And then you still recommend it to everyone you know. That is this book in a nutshell. I hated it. It made me want to rip pages out and burn them, but I highly recommend it.

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The one part of this book that I actually hated (and not just hated because that’s the point), is what happened when the twins were reunited. I don’t understand the point. I don’t understand the symbolism. I can read the analysis and tell you what the author was going for, but, personally, it made me way too uncomfortable. But then this circles around to that being the point of the book. It’s not a warm and fuzzy book. I both loved that and hated that. So I don’t know. You just have to read it for yourself. You may not like it, but you’ll probably love it.

Review by the Numbers:

Overall: 5/5

Writing: 5/5

Plot: 4/5

Character Development: 5/5

Message: 4/5

- India (Reading My Way Around the World Challenge)

- A Book About Asian/Middle Eastern Experiences (My Diversity Challenge)

- A Book Set in India (Uncorked Reading Challenge 2021)

- A Best Seller from the 1990s (2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge)